From the atlas
Azienda Agricola Tacchino
At A Glance
- Producer: Azienda Agricola Tacchino
- Village/Location: Castelletto d'Orba, Alto Monferrato, southeastern Piemonte
- Grapes: Dolcetto, Cortese, Barbera
- Key Bottles: Du Riva (Dolcetto d'Ovada Superiore), Gavi di Gavi DOCG
- Farming: Dry-farmed, hand-harvested, organic practices (non-certified)
- Generation: Third (Alessio and Romina Tacchino)
The Producer
Du Riva, the estate's Dolcetto d'Ovada Superiore, won Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri for 13 consecutive years, and did so as the first wine from the Ovada appellation to reach that tier. That run did not happen because Dolcetto d'Ovada was already a fashionable address. It happened because Azienda Agricola Tacchino committed to a rare local clone, a particular ageing method, and a level of patience unusual for a grape variety normally bottled young and drunk within a year or two.
The estate sits in Castelletto d'Orba, a village in the Alto Monferrato hills of southeastern Piemonte. Third-generation siblings Alessio and Romina Tacchino manage 12 hectares split between Castelletto d'Orba and the hillside commune of Lerma. Dolcetto fills the core of their work, with Cortese for a Gavi di Gavi and Barbera rounding out the range.
Place
Castelletto d'Orba sits in Alto Monferrato, the southern spur of Piemonte's Monferrato wine country, close to the Ligurian Apennines. The surrounding hills fold the vineyards into a naturally sheltered basin. The soils here carry a high proportion of volcanic ash, which drains well, retains enough heat, and contributes to the aromatic character and colour depth in the red wines.
The appellation matters: Dolcetto d'Ovada Superiore is a step above standard Dolcetto d'Ovada DOC, carrying a minimum ageing requirement that pushes producers toward wines meant to develop rather than be opened immediately. That legal minimum aligns with how Tacchino builds Du Riva: steel fermentation, then an extended rest in bottle before anything leaves the cellar.
The Lerma parcel, acquired in 1999, sits at 300 to 450 metres elevation. The altitude slows ripening and holds acidity in ways that the lower Castelletto d'Orba parcels do not replicate, and the two sites between them give the estate a range of raw material to work with.
Soil And Site
The Castelletto d'Orba parcels sit on the original family ground, with ashy, rich hillside soils that amplify colour and aroma in Dolcetto. The surrounding hills block wind and regulate temperature, creating a contained growing environment rather than an exposed ridge. Lerma, six kilometres away, rises to between 300 and 450 metres, giving firmer acidity and a different ripening curve. Each site is six hectares, and the two together account for the full 12 hectares under vine.
Story
The first confirmed estate bottling came in 1960, when the family released a sparkling wine called Trivoli. That bottling predates the current range by decades and represents a different moment: a small producer testing whether estate wine, rather than bulk grape sales, was viable for a Monferrato family with hillside parcels.
By the time Alessio and Romina took over as the third generation, the focus had moved from sparkling to still red wine, and from the broad Monferrato palette to a specific bet on Dolcetto. The Lerma acquisition in 1999 doubled the planted area and gave the family access to a higher-altitude site that could produce fruit with more ageing capacity. The choice to use the nibiu clone, to skip barrel ageing entirely, and to hold Du Riva in bottle for 36 months before release pulled the estate away from the quick-turnaround model that defined most of the region's Dolcetto output.
The Tre Bicchieri run, once it began, confirmed that the approach was producing something Gambero Rosso's tasters could distinguish at the top tier, year after year, in an appellation that had never produced a wine at that level before.
Vineyards And Cellar
All 12 hectares are dry-farmed. No irrigation means the vines draw entirely from whatever moisture the soil holds between rains, keeping yields in check and concentrating the fruit. Every harvest is done by hand at peak ripeness in autumn, a choice that allows lot-by-lot selection rather than mechanical uniformity.
The nibiu clone of Dolcetto is the heart of the Du Riva protocol. Nibiu is a low-yielding variant: it produces fewer grapes per vine than standard Dolcetto selections, but what it does produce is riper and denser. The smaller crop concentrates sugar, colour compounds, and the fruit aromatics that define the wine's nose. Without the nibiu selection, Du Riva would be a different wine at a different level.
Fermentation and ageing for Du Riva happen in stainless steel for eight months. No wood. The wine then spends 36 months in bottle before release. That extended bottle rest allows the fruit, tannin, and acid to knit together without the vanilla or spice character that oak would add. Du Riva is fruit-driven and carries genuine grip.
Farming across the estate is organic in practice without being certified. The commitment is to the work rather than the label.
Wines
The range is built on two contrasting bottles.
Du Riva, Dolcetto d'Ovada Superiore is the flagship. Made from nibiu-clone Dolcetto on the Castelletto d'Orba and Lerma parcels, it is a dark-fruited red with the density that comes from low yields and the coherence that comes from 36 months of bottle ageing. The palate on the 2019 vintage was described as intense and expansive, with prominent fruit aromatics and a powerful character. No barrel contact means no oak overlay.
Gavi di Gavi DOCG is made from Cortese and sits at the opposite end of the tonal range. Gavi di Gavi is the top tier within the Gavi appellation in southeastern Piemonte, where Cortese is the only permitted grape. The wine is white, aromatic, and dry: spring flowers and forsythia on the nose, light fruit, crushed flowers, mineral, and lemon oil on the palate, and a dry, clean finish.
Barbera del Monferrato completes the range. Barbera is the variety most widely grown across Monferrato, and the Tacchino version is present in the estate lineup, though production and ageing specifics are not confirmed.
In The Glass
Du Riva opens with dark, ripe Dolcetto fruit, the kind that comes from a low-yielding clone rather than from extraction tricks. The nose is dense and fruit-forward, with the nibiu clone's concentration showing in the depth of the aromatics. In the mouth, the wine has body and grip, the tannin firm but not raw, and the 36-month bottle ageing has rounded the edges without flattening the fruit. The finish is long for Dolcetto, with enough grip to handle food and enough fruit to carry the wine another few years in bottle.
The Gavi di Gavi moves in a completely different register. The nose is floral: forsythia, spring flowers, and a mineral note that is clean rather than stony. The palate is light and taut, with crushed flowers, mineral character, and a thread of lemon oil cutting through to a dry, direct finish. It is a Cortese built for freshness rather than weight, and the finish is dry enough to avoid the soft, rounded quality that less exact versions of the grape tend toward.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with Du Riva, Dolcetto d'Ovada Superiore. Choose it over the Gavi because it explains what makes this estate different from every other small Piemonte producer working with multiple varieties. The nibiu clone, the all-steel cellar, and three years in bottle before release are all decisions that push against how Dolcetto is normally handled, and the wine in the glass reflects those decisions clearly. Dark fruit, firm tannin, no oak character, and a coherence in the mid-palate that takes most Dolcetto two or three years in barrel to approach. Open it with a plate of braised meat or aged cheese, or hold it for a further two years.
Anecdote
When Du Riva first appeared in Gambero Rosso's tasting lineup, Dolcetto d'Ovada had no track record at the Tre Bicchieri level. The appellation produced good everyday Dolcetto, the kind of wine poured by the carafe in Piemontese kitchens and rarely discussed in national wine press. No Ovada wine had ever stood at the top tier of the country's most widely read wine guide. Tacchino's entry, built on a clone most producers had moved away from, aged in steel with no barrel contact, and held in bottle for three years before being sold, landed in that tasting as something without a ready category. Gambero Rosso gave it Tre Bicchieri. Then they gave it again the following year, and the year after that, and kept giving it for a total of 13 consecutive years. The appellation had not changed. The vine and the cellar protocol had.
Final Word
Tacchino is a small estate doing one thing at an uncommon level. Du Riva is the case: a Dolcetto built for bottle ageing from a clone chosen for concentration, with no wood, no shortcuts, and 13 years of Gambero Rosso recognition as the external record. The Gavi di Gavi offers a different kind of aromatic character in a lighter frame. Between the two bottles, the estate's priorities are legible.
Sources
- https://wineandtravelitaly.com/wineries/tacchino/
- https://augustimports.com/brands/tacchino/
- https://www.gamberorossointernational.com/news/the-best-dolcetto-from-ovada-and-dogliani-in-4-award-winning-labels-by-gambero-rosso/
- https://www.winemonthclub.com/luigi-tacchino-gavi-di-gavi-docg